"Serving West and East Village, Chelsea, SoHo, NoHo, Little Italy, Chinatown and the Lower East Side"

Volume 77, Number 1 September 12 -18, 2007

Editorial/Op-EdR.I.P. Hilly Kristal, patriarch of punkIts hard to believe that Hilly Kristal is no longer with us, because the music that his legendary club, CBGB, nurtured is today so much a part of our culture.

Letters to the EditorTalking PointWhy Barack Obama makes sense to me, a lot of senseBy Arthur Z. Schwartz
Its not that ordinary people have forgotten how to dream. Its just that their leaders have forgotten how.
Barack Obama  November 2006
To me, politics has always been personal. Im not talking about running for office (which gets very personal). Im talking about choices about issues, choices involving candidates and choices about how involved to get or not get.

NotebookFrom a park bench, he recalls a life on the waterBy Lorcan Otway
On Friday afternoon two weeks ago, as often happens, Lieutenant Corcoran told a drinker to get out of Tompkins Square Park. And Carl Lee, ever the gentleman, complied with humor and a genteel wit.

Brooklyn is so hip that swimmers take dip in raceBy Jefferson Siegel
Usually, the phrase Go jump in the river is an insult. However, last Saturday, it was a call to everyone gathered Downtown in East River Park to adjust their swim caps, take a deep breath and, well, jump in the river.

Too much bloodshedOn Tuesday in front of the PATH train station, where the World Trade Center once stood, identical triplets Alicia, Kelly and Sara Casilio silently expressed their dissent against the Iraq War during the 9/11 memorial tribute. In their protest, one square inch of red ribbon equaled 12 dead. On the forehead of each was written a different number, representing either those who died in the 9/11 attack or the totals of U.S. troops or Iraqi civilians killed in the war to date.

Community Board 2 puts Chinatown on the menuBy Albert Amateau
The first meeting of Community Board 2’s Chinatown Committee last week was hailed as a historic occasion and the beginning of a redress of past neglect of the Chinatown community.

Irwin lives at Bleecker St. schoolhouse anniversaryBy Albert Amateau
Dolores Duncan was 5 years old back in 1932 when she walked into the new Village home of the Little Red School House on Bleecker St. off Sixth Ave. on the first day it opened. At 8 a.m. last Monday she was on hand again to celebrate Little Red’s 75th anniversary in the building.

Be-In anniversary: What a long, strange trip it’s beenBy Jefferson Siegel
On Jan. 14, 1967, 20,000 San Franciscans gathered for a Human Be-In in Golden Gate Park. Less than two months later, on Sun., March 26, 1967, between 5,000 and 10,000 people gathered in Sheep Meadow in New York’s Central Park for “Be-In: A Central Park Happening.”

A toast to the spirit of Toots Shor, and his cityBy Jerry Tallmer
It was a different time. DiMaggio and Sinatra and Jackie Gleason and Frank Costello more or less divided the world between them. You still had 11 daily newspapers in this town. Sportswriters made as much as the ballplayers they wrote about. Booze, not drugs, was the diversion of choice. The music was something you could sing in your head, or savor on the radio.

Essex Street Market is transformed, yet againBy Kelly Kingman
Just south of Delancey Street, steps from the bustling, renovated Essex Street Market now filled with gourmet grocers, sits the derelict D building of the original market complex. Unused for the past 13 years, it’s been temporarily reincarnated as the first, large-scale U.S. installation by British artist Mike Nelson. Called “A Psychic Vacuum,” the work is the result of a partnership between the artist and the city’s own Creative Time, an organization known for its interest in revitalizing disused spaces through public works.

Koch on FilmEd KochDeath at a Funeral (-) As I left the theater, a couple said to HS, Did you like the film? They thought it was very funny and said they enjoyed it. I interjected, It was really bad.

No robo-post office, yet, on Hudson St.By Kara Bloomgarden-Smoke
When the West Village Post Office at 527 Hudson St. reopens, it will continue to be staffed by humans. Eventually, the clerks will be joined by an automated postal center.

His name is Oscar, but to Wash. Sq. rats hes RamboBy Kara Bloomgarden-Smoke
The first time Andrea Mitchells schnauzer Oscar saw a rat in Washington Square Park, he went bananas.
I was like, What is he doing! said Mitchell, recalling how the little dog tripped over himself and fell.

Boyfriend arrested in Soho womans stabbing murderBy Lincoln Anderson
On Wed., Sept. 5, the body of a woman whom police identified as Denise Deperrie, 36, was found with two stab wounds by her roommate after he noticed a strange smell coming from her bedroom inside an apartment at 31 Crosby St., police said.

One arrest at Baruch Houses, but raid may have been a bustBy Patrick Hedlund
A drug raid by a force of police officers on the Lower East Side late last month led to a just small-time bust after police swarmed a building in the Baruch Houses complex during the early-morning hours, according to local residents and law enforcement officials.

Was it 16th option? Cabrini Polyclinic sold againBy Bonnie Rosenstock
One year after purchasing the Cabrini Stuyvesant Polyclinic, developer Herbert Hirsch has finally decided what to do with the vacant property. Hirschs office confirmed that he has sold it. Hirsch, who bought the 1883 landmark building at 137 Second Ave. and E. Ninth St. last August for $4.8 million, closed the deal around Labor Day.

The partys (not quite) over for the Art ParadeBy Raquel Hecker
Its not everyday you get the chance to see Fischerspooner naked except for some strategically placed donuts. But last Saturday, the art band/collective could be seen in a golf cart in various states of undress as New Yorks wildest galleries and strangest performance venues spilled their guts onto West Broadway for two hours for the third annual Art Parade.

Actress mixes bartending and film fest, stirsBy Bonnie Rosenstock
In five short years Ellie Diez has gone from making mojitos to making movie magic. In 2002, Diez, a thirty-something, hazel-eyed Latina of Puerto Rican and Ecuadorian extraction, was working as a bartender at Esperanto, a fusion Latino restaurant.